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Old 10-31-2010, 08:20 PM   #1
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Animal Smiley 049 Advice Please / Hand feeding New Litter

My little girl whelped 4 puppies on 10/25 and all went text book perfect. It was her first time, and mine as well. I researched all I could get my hands on, and thankfully so as she developed Eclampsia. Lucy is a bigger girl, weighing 9-1/2# and the sire was 5#. The puppies were 7oz., 6.4oz, 6.7 oz. and the last baby was 5.8 ounces. She was on Wellness puppy kibble & Wellness wet food and I fed her 4-5 smaller meals per day as she didn't have a huge appetite but especially not in the few days prior to whelp. All placenta's came out, except one. Feeling like I wanted to be proactive to avoid a uterine infection, as well as inquire re: her calcium levels, I took her to the vet the next day. They gave her an injection of ptocin or oxytocin.. and upon my insistence, they agreed to check her calcium level. It came back at 11, apparently at the high end of normal. I was told if eclampsia were to happen, generally it happens in 2-3 days post whelp when the milk demand is higher.

Lucy was an amazing first time Momma... only left her babies to eat, drink or relieve herself. Within 72 hours of having this calcium level done, and it being fine, she was in an emergency situation with having eclampsia. Thank God I knew the signs, and thank God I woke up & decided to check on them at 2:30 a.m. and found her panting & looking strange. When she refused water, I picked her up from nursing her babies to encourage her to drink outside the whelping box and she couldn't stand.. started shivering, etc. Off to the ER went my husband.

We were told she could no longer nurse and we needed to hand raise them. The vet did a follow-up calcium blood test and it showed within normal limits but on the lower end of normal. He instructed me to give her 1/4 of a caltrate 2x / day and put her on critical care food. She had become sad and wouldn't eat or drink due to not being able to nurse her babies and I'm thinking the hormones were probably a factor. Her tears caused me to cry, more than once. How sad.... We do put her in the whelping box with a baby sleeper, with the legs / arms cut out so she can interact with them, but they cant nurse. This seems to help her.

We have been feeding, burping, pooping & peeing the babies for the past 3 days. I have a digital scale and watching their intakes / outputs very closely, etc. I switched them to using a dr. brown human bottle and that is going much better than the vet puppy bottles. They are 1 week old today, and slowly gaining weight, but not as rapidly as while they were nursing. They were gaining an ounce each day with Lucy. At 1 week, they are each between 10 and 11 oz.

The every 4 hour feeding schedule is difficult, and wondered if you could give me advice in terms of when we can consider increasing their formula and go to a 6 hour feeding schedule ? I don't want to overwhelm their tummies and have a set back. Also, a vet tech told me as soon as their eyes are open I can start them on a good canned puppy food and mix formula in it. Is that true ? I'm thinking their digestive tract may not be able to handle that at 10 days or 2 weeks ?? The thing that has me very concerned is they have the strong desire to suckle, just like a human baby, even though they have full bellies of food. They are sucking on each other's genitals, and toes... The vet said to separate them which I plan to do tomorrow. Do you have any ideas on how to best do this ? Without their Momma around them, they rely on each other to comfort and lay on each other for warmth and companionship. I have placed "safe" small stuffed animals in the whelping box for them to crawl on and help keep them separated, but they are moving a lot more at 1 week !!

I was wondering about getting some preemie human pacifiers and wondered if this would satisfy their need to suckle. What do you think about the Leesburg (sp) formula ? Right now I am feeding the canned puppy formula from my vet.

I am not a full time breeder, and these puppies were planned for other family members, who also have yorkies. My background is in human medicine, and I know you all are experts in yorkie breeding, so I really look forward and welcome whatever advice you can give me. I am so glad I took the time to evaluate all the "what if's" before the whelp as I could have easily lost my Lucy. I even had discussions with the vet re: the potential for eclampsia during her pregnancy. I never ever gave her any supplements or anything during her pregnancy as I knew this could bring on eclampsia. They advised me re: that as well. Thank you again for your kind help. I really appreciate this board.
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Old 11-01-2010, 08:34 PM   #2
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I had this happen at the beginning of the year only mom came down with PRE eclampsia.
I raised a litter of 5 from birth and I used a home made formula and they gained like weeds I also fed them every 2 hours 24/7. I personally think the 4 hour span is too long if they are new borns.

Its alot of hard work but I'd do it all over again if I had too. Mom was great and she wore a onsie and I fed the babies and she did the rest. We were a wonderful team
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Old 11-02-2010, 04:41 AM   #3
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I agree, the babies need to be fed every 2 hours. This happened to my Gellica 3 years ago, 2 weeks after whelping, and we almost lost her. We had to feed the 4 babies the rest of the way. One of the puppies wasn't taking in as much as the rest, so we fed her every hour at first. It seemed like forever before we could space out the feedings, they were always hungry.
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Old 11-02-2010, 09:12 AM   #4
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This happened to me on our last litter. It would be the last that Ellie and myself would ever have. It was a very difficult time for us because the feedings every 2 hours seemed to last for 2 hours. I didn't get much sleep. We used Dr. Browns bottles as well and they did great. I fed them as much as they would eat, and tried to sleep while they were sleeping. Ellie did the cleaning for me, but they would do their best to nurse while she had on a onesie. Anyway, I used goat milk and water, I believe you can find the receipe here in the breeders section. I can't remember it off hand. My babies wanted to suck a lot too. I would offer more formula and then they would sleep. I offered baby rice formula mixed in with the goats milk at 3 weeks old. However, we still had to bottle feed them. Slowly they started eating on their own and we stopped the botlles at 4 weeks. I can definitely say that it was a blessing to have the opportunity to do it, but would never want to do it again.

Therefore, I no longer breed, and Ellie is much happier for it.
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Old 11-02-2010, 10:02 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blancla View Post
This happened to me on our last litter. It would be the last that Ellie and myself would ever have. It was a very difficult time for us because the feedings every 2 hours seemed to last for 2 hours. I didn't get much sleep. We used Dr. Browns bottles as well and they did great. I fed them as much as they would eat, and tried to sleep while they were sleeping. Ellie did the cleaning for me, but they would do their best to nurse while she had on a onesie. Anyway, I used goat milk and water, I believe you can find the receipe here in the breeders section. I can't remember it off hand. My babies wanted to suck a lot too. I would offer more formula and then they would sleep. I offered baby rice formula mixed in with the goats milk at 3 weeks old. However, we still had to bottle feed them. Slowly they started eating on their own and we stopped the botlles at 4 weeks. I can definitely say that it was a blessing to have the opportunity to do it, but would never want to do it again.

Therefore, I no longer breed, and Ellie is much happier for it.
Thank you all for your input. We are still doing the 4 hour thing, and the puppies are gaining each day, and not crying being hungry so I am not concerned just really, really tired ! It's amazing how fast you get to know your puppies. I have one who wants to pee first, then the bottle has to be a certain temp. Turns his nose up if he's 3rd. in line and it's not quite warm enough, even though I have it sitting in a dish of warmed water ! They arrived bigger, when I expected them to only be 3oz. at whelp so maybe that was a head start. I looked back over my records and realized each puppy gained 1 to 1-1/2 ounces each day while nursing. Times that by 4 and no wonder her calcium was depleted. It just bothers me that maybe this could have been prevented by a caltrate supplement, but I really don't know.

My husband redid the whelping box, and set up dividers using cookie cooling racks & sherpa on the edges against the box for safety, so they can snuggle together and smell each other, and have that warmth, but they are separated to deal with the suckling instinct. Two of my boy's little penis' were getting too much action and a little swollen The vet said, babies want to suckle like human children whether they are hungry or not, and I absolutely needed to separate them.

The vet mentioned adding rice cereal but he didn't say when. No disrespect intended, but he doesn't mind me coming back for follow-up visits each week for a quick check, calcium level & puppy advice, but the $80 bill each week is pretty costly. Poor Lucy, has to endure a blood test from her jugular vein. They did it in the exam room last time and she was a champ, but I didn't like seeing that.

I agree this is a blessed experience, and the pups are thriving amazingly well. Honestly I worry about these babies just like when I brought my first born baby home many years ago, and worried about burps and poops, etc. I am exhausted ! I find myself sleeping when the babies sleep, just like I tried to do with my "human babies". I definitely won't do this again, but I don't regret the experience. Ha! maybe I will change my mind when they are toddlers pooping and walking in it, and I have to cleanse the stinky darlin's only to have them walk in their poop again ! What are your thoughts about using hypoallergenic baby wipes for cleaning them, in terms of their puppy skin & coat ? I don't think a full water bath each day would be a good idea.

The babies are beautiful and I love them all so much. Gawd it's going to be hard to part with them, even though they are supposed to be going to my siblings (who live in different states) !

Thanks again, everyone. I will welcome more input as anyone can share their experiences.
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